One of the most pervasive failure mechanisms in an ink jet printer head is the gradual erosion and eventual failure of the jet producing member (e.g., a resistor in a thermal ink jet printer), its protective overcoat and the underlying substrate by the action of the repetitive high speed collapse of the vapor bubble created during jetting. Some substantial improvements in life of these devices have been achieved via choice of geometry, materials and the fluid over the resistor.
However, the life as limited by cavitation damage is still a problem, especially for large arrays of jets which are more expensive to manufacture and are statistically more prone to failure.